Meet Hugo Hammond, Brookes grad and Love Island’s second disabled contestant

Love Island finally returns to our screens tonight and this time around the show is featuring its second disabled contestant, meet Hugo Hammond.

Hugo is a 24-year-old PE teacher, who was born with clubfoot but hasn’t let that stop him as he went onto playing for the England PD cricket team. He’s an Oxford Brookes grad and was in a relationship for over two years before signing up to the show.

Hugo will be joining a lineup of incredibly fit Islanders that includes a 21-year-old Nando’s waitress, a 26-year-old influencer and a 25-year-old civil servant he could couple up with.

This is everything you need to know about Hugo Hammond:

Hugo is Love Island’s second disabled contestant

Hugo is the second Love Island contestant to have a disability. He was born with clubfoot, which is a condition that makes the foot bend inside and downwards. However Hugo had a number of operations as a child and now he said you can only tell when he walks barefoot. He said: “You only really tell when I walk barefoot. I’ve got a really short Achilles… I walk slightly on my tip toes.”

And he hasn’t let this stop him from becoming a highly acclaimed sports player. Hugo played cricket for England PD (physical disability) and travelled around the world playing the sport including Bangladesh and Dubai.

He has 19,000 Instagram followers

Since Hugo was announced as a Love Islander his Instagram has steadily risen in followers and he now has nearly 20,000 followers. He mainly uses his Instagram to post pictures of himself and his mates, the occasional cute dog photo also pops up.

Hugo is a Brookes graduate

Hugo attended Oxford Brookes University and studied sports coaching. He graduated in 2019 but was considered a “BNOC” before he left. A source told the Daily Mail Hugo was a divisive character at uni. They said: “Hugo really thought he was the bees’ knees and aimed to make a name for himself at university.

“He’s bragged about his female conquests but they certainly weren’t the ones bragging afterwards. Hugo was a divisive figure to say the least, some people liked him, while others thought he was just a posh knobhead.” The Daily Mail also acquired a video of Hugo singing a chant in a house party saying he was a “fine shagger”. They all think that.

He was in a relationship for two and a half years before Love Island

When joining Love Island Hugo said he has been single for a while and hasn’t been dating because of the pandemic. He said: “I’ve been single for a while now. With the current climate, it’s been really hard to get back into dating. I saw it as an opportunity to have an amazing fun summer and put myself back out there.” However Hugo had a girlfriend up until December last year. He was in a relationship with Millie Simons for two and a half years. The two went on holiday together and appeared to both study at Brookes.

A source told The Daily Mail, Hugo dumped Millie but asked her to run his social media for Love Island. They claimed: “They didn’t split up that long ago. He sees Love Island as a way of getting famous and opening up opportunities so had to be single before going in. He asked Millie to run his social media account during his time in the villa but she flatly turned down his offer, unsurprisingly.”

Hugo is a PE teacher

Since graduating from uni Hugo has become a PE teacher for secondary school kids. He said he loves his job and hopes his pupils are enthusiastic about his teaching. He said: “I absolutely love my job. I love all my sports. It’s great to be able to pass on that enthusiasm to be physically active to the younger generation and hopefully they feel the same about me teaching them.”

He set up his own charity

In 2019 Hugo was nominated for The Tab’s Captain of The Year for being captain of the 1st cricket team. Within his nomination it is revealed he set up his own charity called Opening Up which promotes mental wellbeing through cricket. In the nomination he was described as “loose, loveable and legendary”.

Featured image credit via Instagram @hugo_hammond_

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